tion, would not, I think, have flourished, if they could have been exercised at all. Men would have addicted themselves to contemplative and ascetic lives, instead of lives of business and of useful industry. We observe that St. Paul found it necessary, frequently to recall his converts to the ordinary labours and domestic duties of their condition; and to give them, in his own example, a lesson of contented application to their worldly employments.

By the manner in which the religion is now proposed, a great portion of the human species is enabled, and of these, multitudes of every generation are induced, to seek and to effectuate their salvation through the medium of Christianity, without interruption of the profperity or of the regular course of human affairs.

CHAP.

CHAP. VII.

The supposed Effects of Chriftianity.

THAT a religion, which, under every

form in which it is taught, holds forth the final reward of virtue, and punishment of vice, and proposes those distinctions of virtue and vice, which the wisest and most cultivated part of mankind confefs to be just, should not be believed, is very possible; but that, so far as it is believed, it should not produce any good, but rather a bad effect upon public happiness, is a propofition, which it requires very strong evidence to render credible. Yet many have been found to contend for this paradox, and very confident appeals have been made to history, and to observation, for the truth of it,

In the conclufions, however, which these writers draw, from what they call experiBb4

ence, two fources, I think, of mistake, may be perceived.

One is, that they look for the influence of religion in the wrong place.

The other, that they charge Christianity with many consequences, for which it is not responsible.

1. The influence of religion is not to be fought for in the councils of princes, in the debates or resolutions of popular affemblies, in the conduct of governments towards their subjects, or of states and sovereigns towards one another; of conquerors at the head of their armies, or of parties intriguing for power at home (topics which alone almost occupy the attention, and fill the pages of history); but must be perceived, if perceived at all, in the filent course of private and dos mestic life. Nay more; even there its in fluence may not be very obvious to observation. If it check, in some degree, per

sonal diffoluteness, if it beget a general pro

bity in the transation of business, if it produce soft and humane manners in the mass of the community, and occasional exertions of laborious or expensive benevolence in a few individuals, it is all the effect which can offer itself to external notice. The kingdom of heaven is within us, That which is the substance of the religion, its hopes and confolations, its intermixture with the thoughts by day and by night, the devotion of the heart, the control of appetite, the steady direction of the will to the commands of God, is necessarily invisible. Yet upon these depend the virtue and the happiness of millions. This cause renders the reprefentations of history, with respect to religion, defective and fallacious, in a greater degree than they are upon any other subject. Re Ngion operates most upon those of whom history knows the least; upon fathers and mothers in their families, upon men servants and maid servants, upon the orderly tradefman, the quiet villager, the manufacturer at his loom, the husbandman in his fields. Amongst such its influence collectively may be

be of inestimable value, yet its effects in the mean time little, upon those who figure upon the stage of the world. They may know nothing of it; they may believe nothing of it; they may be actuated by motives more impetuous than thofe which religion is able to excite. It cannot, therefore, be thought strange, that this influence should elude the grafp and touch of public history; for what is public history, but a register of the fucceffes and disappointments, the vices, the follies, and the quarrels, of those who engage in contentions for power?

I will add, that much of this influence may be felt in times of public distress, and little of it in times of public wealth and fecurity. This also increases the uncertainty of any opinions that we draw from historical representations. The influence of Christianity is commensurate with no effects which history states. We do not pretend, that it has any fuch necessary and irresistible power over the affairs of nations, as to surmount the force of other causes.

The